Electro: Lineman for the county turned psycho

[starwolf_oakley]

Electro has a rather odd supervillain origin story: electrical engineer is working on power lines, gets struck by lightning, gains electricity powers, decides to become a super-villain. Basically, he could throw lighting bolts but fought one of the few characters fast enough to dodge them.



Various "adaptations" of Electro have enhanced his origin in various ways. He was the Red Skull's son in the 1990s animated series, an even nerdier friend of Peter Parker's in the 2003 MTV series, and Batman Forever's Edward Nygma in "Amazing Spider-Man 2."

In this post-Clone Saga, pre-Gathering of the Five era, Electro is going through one of his "enhanced" phases, where he's (supposedly) on par with Magneto.

The story is by Tom DeFalco and the art is by Joe Bennett.



Spider-Man is referring to a story called "Light the Night" from the Adjectiveless series. Electro becomes borderline suicidal and wants to go out in a blaze of glory. Spider-Man is able to talk him down, and Electro is very grateful.

Comments

[doctor_spanky]

Spidey talks Electro down from suicide, so Electro publicly degrades him? What a class act :P

I enjoyed the Defalco / Bennet run a fair bit, I like his art style a lot. Anyone else remember Delilah and her fancy speech bubbles?

[arilou_skiff]

I've always liked some of the "Could be ludicrously powerful but don't have the brains and/or inclination" spider-villains. (Sandman also tends to fall there)

[starwolf_oakley]

There's even a reference to that about two issues later.

"I wonder how super-villains come up with these big plans. They must hire freelance writers."

[michaelhealy]

A lot of freelance writers would be desperate enough to take those gigs.

[crimsonmoonmist]

So, that's it? Did that work?
Because a bit of humiliation compared to the endangerment of human lives (not to mention the physical pain of thrashing around) seems like a pretty obvious choice to me. Then again, Batman has yet to stretch his personal code to off the Joker, so what do I know (Seriously though, I'm a firm believer that humans should never be allowed to make excuses for murder considering our natural habit of making up excuses to begin with)?

[joetuss]

How is that spiderman bein humiliated if you know the only reason he's doing it is to protect civilians?...How is that satifiying?

[cainofdreaming]

Electro's not that big on lateral thinking. A guy begging for his life is just a guy begging for his life to him, he probably never thought to consider the reason.

Or dumb is as dumb does.

[leoboiko]

perhaps it`s just the simple satisfaction of beating him in a fight.

[leoboiko]

let me guess: the nice story where spider-man helps electro wasn`t written by this tom defalco…

[halloweenjack]

Now I've got "Wichita Lineman" going through my head. Could be worse!

[demonprawn]

Why is Marvel so ashamed of Electro's mask? It's awesome.

They are acting like DC.

[starwolf_oakley]

John Byrne was ashamed of Electro's whole costume, giving him a blue one. The Scorpion also got a blue armor costume back then as well.